Sri Lankan captain Dinesh Chandimal led by example on Monday as he scored unbeaten 98 runs to help Sri Lanka fight back on the third day of the third Test at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi.
Chandimal struck 13 boundaries in his composed 262-ball knock as Sri Lanka reached 270/4 at tea, trailing the Indians by 266 runs with six wickets remaining in the first innings.
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With former skipper Angelo Mathews, Chandimal established a 181-run partnership for the fourth-wicket. Mathews made 111 runs off 268 runs with the help of 14 boundaries and two sixes.
After declaring the innings for 536/7, India restricted Sri Lanka 131/3 at stumps on Sunday. On the Day 3, the Delhi spectators saw determined the pair of Mathews and Chandimal, who played composed cricket throughout the first two sessions of the Test match.
But then came Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, who took the much-needed wicket of Mathews with the help of wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha.
Earlier on Day 2, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja had claimed the wicket of Dimuth Karunaratne (0), Dhananjaya de Silva (1) and Dilruwan Perera (42) respectively.